Weather and environmental hazards, as well as road and other debris are formidable enemies of the vehicle owner seeking to maintain the like-new appearance and residual value of a vehicle such as a car, boat, plane, motorcycle, custom coach, RV and virtually all modes of transportation. All of these will be referred to hereafter, for the sake of convenience, as “vehicles”.
Present methods used to help prevent damage to painted surfaces include cloth coverings (auto “bras”), plastic non-flexing shields (“bug shield”), and flexible urethane or PVC film.
An auto bra is a cloth-like covering that is attached to the front of a vehicle either by elastic straps or mechanical fasteners. These do not provide an exact fit. Moisture and debris can get in between the auto bra and the vehicle. During periods in which the vehicle is moving, an auto bra can vibrate. The vibration itself is not beneficial to the vehicle finish, and vibration over such moisture and debris actually can be detrimental to the vehicle finish, causing marring or discoloration.
Plastic bug shields are mechanically fastened to the hood of a vehicle. This attachment is itself disadvantageous, and such bug shields are often unsightly and undesirable to vehicle owners. Furthermore, the attachments can break, leaving the shield free to move in such a manner that may cause damage to the vehicle surface.
Flexible Urethane and PVC films are currently the most effective process for protecting vehicle surfaces. Typically, a set of one or more patterns (i.e., a kit) is manufactured at a factory or some other fixed location. Such kits are applied at the manufacturing or production site, forcing the consumer to bring the vehicle to the production site. When it is undesired or inconvenient for the consumer to bring the vehicle to the production site, it is also common practice to deliver the kit to the consumer's location.
Both of these prior approaches are disadvantageous. Consumers do not like to come to the production site, and prefer delivery and installation at a more convenient location.
Taking a kit to a consumer location is problematic because the correct kit to take cannot always be correctly known. For example, consumers often make mistakes when indicating the precise vehicle model, vehicle year, and any vehicle modifications. When this happens, the service provider arrives at the consumer site with the wrong kit. The correct kit must then be identified and a production request initiated. The service provider must travel to the production facility and then travel back to the consumer site. Moreover, the kit originally ordered must then either be stored for possible (though uncertain) future use or be discarded.
One approach to mitigate the preceding problem of the customer ordering the wrong kit is to travel to the customer site with an inventory of kits, in the hope that at least one of them will be the correct kit. This is not a good solution because it requires the production of multiple kits for every order.
Furthermore, taking a variety of kits for a given installation on a consumer vehicle does not accommodate the needs of other nearby consumers who may notice the installation on the one vehicle and desire immediate installation on their different vehicle. In such a case, the other consumer's desire cannot be immediately fulfilled and so there is a risk of losing this kind of ad-hoc or impulse order.